This startup's innovation has the potential to prevent over 3,000 kg of paper waste from ending up in landfills each month.

Indic Initiatives, founded by B G Seetharaman, Vinay Kumar, and Rajeeva Deekshit, has developed an innovative machine capable of recycling challenging paper waste, such as paper cups, Tetra Pak, and tissues. The COVID-19 pandemic was a difficult period for many, including BG Seetharaman's handmade paper company, BG Boutique Paper Mills Private Limited, in Chikkamagaluru. Despite the hardships, Seetharaman, passionate about sustainability and reducing waste, used this time to focus on his dream project: creating an end-to-end solution to prevent solid waste from reaching landfills.

He collaborated with Vinay Kumar, a social entrepreneur, and Rajeeva Deekshit, an expert in green chemistry, to explore ways to address waste paper and fibrous agricultural waste. They identified a significant issue: approximately 30,000 tonnes of paper end up in landfills due to plastic or aluminum coatings and contamination from beverages, making it unsuitable for recycling. Additionally, around 87 million tonnes of crop residue are burned annually in India, according to a Science Direct report.To tackle these problems, the trio launched Indic Initiatives in July 2022 and developed a unique waste paper recycling machine designed to process hard-to-recycle materials like paper cups, tissue papers, label release paper, and Tetra Pak. This machine converts waste into pulp boards, which can be used to produce paper and molded products. The startup, incubated at NSRCEL (IIM Bangalore) and IIMV FIELD (IIM Visakhapatnam), plans to patent the machine’s design and process. Seetharaman, a mechanical engineer from BITS Pilani who conducted research at the Indian Institute of Science in Bengaluru, previously worked at Seshasayee Paper and Boards before founding BG Boutique Paper Mills in 1997.